Before we start on the first mission, let's take a look around the airship for a bit. The Celsius is the Gullwings' base of operations, and you return to here after every mission, so it's good to know the way around the place.

Out on the bridge, we can meet the crew.

As previously mentioned, Shinra is the inventor of the Garment Grid system. He's kind of the Gullwings' tech guy.

Shinra: "I know everything."

"At least, it looked like you. I couldn't say for sure. I thought I might find more spheres like it if I joined the Gullwings. So I did. Oh, in case you're wondering, the Gullwings are sphere hunters, and sphere hunters are, well... This! We fly all over Spira. I'm really enjoying myself."

"He really has improved quite a bit. He told me that he practiced just so that he could talk with me more."

For whatever reason, he still goes by 'Brother' in this game. Does he even have a name? Who knows. Talking with him grants a few Al Bhed Primers too. Like in X-1, these translate the Al Bhed language letter by letter.

Talking to him a second time grants you a gift.

A new dressphere! This unlocks a new job, and can be added to the Garment Grid.

Here's the Garment Grid, by the way. You equip dresspheres into the slots, and then can switch between them mid-battle, but only between those that are adjacent on the grid. (For example, if you want to switch from Thief to Gunner, you need to switch to Songstress first.) There are many different grids that can be unlocked in due time, some with other benefits. Thankfully, this one has enough spaces for our five dresspheres: Gunner, Thief, Warrior, Songstress, and the new one, Festivalist. This one is based on traditional Japanese festivals, and has different abilities for each character.

You gain AP for participating in battle as that job, and can select which ability to learn next on this screen. Once the AP requirement is filled, it's ready for use immediately.

"Buddy and Brother are old friends. Buddy says he was aboard Cid's airship with us two years ago. When I told him I didn't remember, he seemed disappointed."

Buddy's our pilot, and he's the guy to talk to when you want to select a destination.

Leaving the bridge for now, let's check out the other facilities.

You can't really do much on the deck, but you get a nice view.

Over at the cabin, we can meet the friendly bartender.

"Our barkeep's a Hypello. No one knows his real name, so everyone just calls him 'Barkeep.' Brother took him in, and now he works aboard the airship."

He runs the Gullstore and also allows you to rest here if needed.

On the upper floor of the cabin we can see the Gullwings' living quarters. Looks cozy.

Hold on. I'm not finished with the tour yet.

The engine room isn't much to look at, but there are a few chests with some recovery items inside. These get restocked every chapter, so it's good to take a look around here on occasion.

Back on the bridge, Buddy's finished his analysis, and the Gullwings have a destination set.

"Sacred Mt. Gagazet. Silent guardian of Zanarkand, city of the dead. When the fayth disappeared, the clouds enshrouding the mountain began to thin and disperse, revealing long-forgotten ruins among its peaks."

The airship drops the Gullwings off near the top of the ruins. It's kind of a precarious landing.

Eep! Watch your step, Yuna.

Brother: "What's your status?"

Rikku: "Disasterrific!"

I don't think this is really the time. Thankfully, Rikku and Paine manage to pull Yuna back up.

Now they can head into the ruins proper.

Yuna's a bit more acrobatic than in the last game, and holding down A while running lets you jump gaps and climb ledges. Sometimes this can lead to secret treasures.

Each dressphere comes with its own weapon, so you don't really have to worry about that. The main equip slots are accessories, which each party member can equip up to two of. This one adds lightning resistance and allows the wearer to cast Thunder regardless of job. I decided to put it on Yuna for now.

This seems like a dead end, but Yuna thinks it might be an elevator.

It's kind of a rough ride.

Brother: "Disasteriffic? I am on my way!"

Well, well. Look who it is. "Leblanc. Remember the name well, loves." And she takes the time to call the Gullwings a bunch of amateurs.

Yeah, she totally was.

We already have to fight these losers again, this time all three at once.

Rikku's Darkness Dance helped weaken their attacks while the other two finished them off. Also note that Yuna wields Brotherhood as Warrior, which is a nice touch.

"And this is the thanks I get for going easy on you."

They head off, and now we've got our mission. It's a race to the top of the ruins, where the sphere awaits.

The timer here is quite generous, and it pauses while you're in battle or tinkering around with the menu.

Of course, we have to deal with a few fiends on the way up.

Plus some more of Leblanc's goons. The Recoils are machina employed by the Leblanc Syndicate. I'm not really sure what's the deal with them, apart from their name being an amazing pun. They're weak to electricity like most machina, so that ring that let Yuna cast Thunder came in quite handy.

Logos & Ormi: "Sorry, boss."

You have to run through some interior areas too. It's easy to get lost in here, but there's more than enough time to make it through.

Well, this is awkward. Guess we don't have to worry about that timer anymore.

But we do have to worry about this giant enemy crab.

It's a pretty standard first boss, with no real tricks.

The Gullwings brought it down in no time.

Oh yes, those grapes are very sour.

Time to head back.

Buddy: "Brother? He's not with you?"

Getting back on board reveals what's going on.

What an idiot. Thankfully, he's not actually hurt.

Shinra gets to work. After a few moments, it's ready for viewing.

Not exactly a great show. Yep, it's junk. However, they can use it as a dressphere.

Aw yeah. The best job, and quite fashionable too. Expect me to be using this one a lot.

Buddy's pinpointed two more sphere locations: One on Besaid Island, the other at the Zanarkand Ruins. The Gullwings' next missions are ready, but we'll get to that next time.

The sphere in Besaid is secured, so the next stop is the Zanarkand Ruins. Buddy suspects that this sphere might be 1,000 years old, given the location.

"I wanted to keep that feeling, this place within me forever. Now look at it."

A tourist attraction? Well, this is one of the most significant historical sites in Spira.

Yuna spies a familiar face among those gathered here. He now works as a tour guide. People from all over come to visit, including sphere hunters.

Be that as it may, Yuna's still not happy about what happened to this place.

On the way to the ruined dome, Yuna runs into some kids discussing a clue they found. Apparently the clue is 'key'.

Inside there are some fiends, but also some more of Leblanc's goons. Seems the Syndicate is after something in here. More Recoils show up too.

A bit further in and the kids properly introduce themselves. Pacce is Isaaru's younger brother, and served as one of his guardians when he became a summoner.

Now they're forming their own sphere hunter crew, or trying to at least. Cute.

They apparently paid fifteen whole gil for that clue.

Further up, the Gullwings find a goon discussing another clue. If 'key' and 'mon' are pieces of the puzzle, then... put them together and you get 'monkey'.

In the hallway approach to the Cloister of Trials, we find more tourists. Someone set up a chest minigame here, but it's so popular it's already sold out.

And in the Chamber of the Fayth we spot another friendly face.

Seems he's the one responsible for turning Zanarkand into a tourist attraction. Yuna voices her displeasure.

As does Rikku. Cid says they have a point.

Scattered around the Chamber of the Fayth and the next room are a bunch of cute little monkeys. They're fun to play with, but some of them will snatch gil from you.

Me too, buddy. Me too.

"Our false hope."

The mysterious voice says that if they seek the treasure, they must speak the password.

Pretty easy.

Yeah, it totally is.

The act is part of his job as a tour guide. He brings excitement to those who visit this place.

Now, by working there, he feels he has fulfilled that wish. Sort of.

He gives the Gullwings a new Garment Grid for their trouble.

They certainly do.

This grid doesn't look that great, but it does give healing capability regardless of job. I put it on Yuna for now.

In the tunnel past Yunalesca's room there are some more fiends. Hoo boy, I sure did not want to run into you again.

I eventually brought it down, but not without great effort. I decided to run from any more that I found.

There it is.

Rikku: "Think we need a password?"

Paine: "How about 'kick...its...ass.'"

The Sanctuary Keeper returns. It can't cast any more white magic spells, but still has the photon wings and can curse you. Since there's no Overdrives in this game, curse does something different now: it prevents you from switching dresspheres.

Exhausted as I was from the behemoth fight, I unfortunately fell to its claws. Thankfully, the HD version of this game added an autosave feature.

Next round, I ran straight to the boss without wasting time on any behemoths. Darkness Dance came in handy again, as the blind effect pretty much nullified its claw swipes. Paine learned Bizzara too, helping to deal additional damage to it.

Nice knowing you.

The sphere can now be claimed, but... it's only half a sphere. That's not really good for anything. The Gullwings take it with them anyway.

Back on the bridge, we're already getting a new signal.

The location seems to be Kilika Woods.

We're heading straight to Kilika Island, with no chance to stop anywhere else.

"The Youth League helped rebuild it. Now it's a bustling town. At the time, everyone was grateful. But lately, well, there have been signs of trouble. It seems that tension is building between the Youth League and New Yevon."

Here's a good stopping point. We'll get into the hunt for the awesome sphere next time.

The Gullwings are quite pleased about the stunt they pulled off.

Yuna wonders if they overdid it.

You sure that's what you want?

Paine offers her counterpoint. Rikku seems fine with it, though, and she and Brother happily dance together.

And that makes everyone else nervous.

Anyway, let's check out the prize. Shinra's finished his analysis on it.

Here's Tidus again, standing before a giant machina.

An alarm goes off, and he turns toward the camera.

It's kind of an unsettling sight.

"Is it you? Or does it just look like you? And who's this 'Lenne'?"

Brother decides he doesn't want to hang on to the thing.

That's what being a sphere hunter was originally about.

The Gullwings are pretty disappointed.

Shinra has an idea to help perk everyone up, though.

Sounds like a plan. Yuna heads to the cabin to get ready.

Brother mentions he picked up a few hitchhikers as Yuna leaves.

The first order of business is to head to the engine room, since the chests here have been restocked.

In the hallway leading to the cabin we meet the guests. It's Tobli and his musician crew. Just what we needed for a musical performance.

You have to literally push them one by one onto the elevator, because this game is weird.

It's concert time.

Songstress Yuna sings her own theme song. Everyone seems to be having fun.

Yuna has a bit of an outburst afterward, shouting "Who the heck is Lenne!" She decides she needs some sleep after that.

Tidus and Yuna run together through a hallway somewhere.

Some soldiers pursue.

They come to a stop before the iron colossus.

And then, the soldiers open fire.

Yuna wakes up with a start.

Rikku suggests maybe she shouldn't be sleeping in the Songstress dressphere.

Back on the bridge, there's something that needs to be decided before they can return the sphere.

Which group do they return it to? Yuna has to decide.

We can drop it off at either the Youth League HQ in Mushroom Rock Road, or New Yevon HQ in Bevelle. I went for the Youth League, because anything is better than Yevon.

Even the airship crew comes along, since they wanted all the Gullwings to return the sphere in person.

Nooj and the Youth Leaguers present give them a warm welcome.

It's a bit odd, but they're not complaining.

Rikku interrupts him, saying they're the Gullwings.

"I see. Sphere hunters. In that case, I gratefully accept the sphere you have brought. On behalf of the Youth League, I thank you."

The Youth League chants "Gullwings! Gullwings! Gullwings!"

Nooj invites them into his tent for a private discussion, and asks if they viewed the sphere. Yuna answers that they did.

Well, that's rather blunt. There's no way Yuna could forget it, though.

He confirms that it is indeed a weapon, one with terrifying destructive power. He'll do whatever it takes to prevent Yevon from using it.

Unfortunately, he has no idea.

Uh oh. Better get back on board.

The half sphere from Zanarkand Ruins was snatched while they were away.

Gee, I wonder who this could be from.

Of course.

The Dullwings Gullwings won't stand for this, but it's not like they can just walk right into Chateau Leblanc and take it back.

Yuna's got a good idea.

It's pretty simple: Find some goons, beat them up, steal their clothes. The Gullwings have their next mission planned out.

I decided to check out the Calm Lands next, since it's right by Macalania Woods anyway.

Two rival companies are operating gambling-based games in the area: Open Air and Argent, Inc. The games are the same for each, but the prizes are different.

Apart from that, this place isn't that different.

The games all involve captured fiends. For this event, you can place bets on which dog you think will win the race, and you receive Argent or Open Air credits for doing so. These can be used to buy items and other things.

The place still has a pretty high encounter rate, and considering how big it is, navigating is kind of a headache. The tiger-like Couerls can reduce your HP to 1 with their Blaster skill. It's learnable as a Blue Bullet, but requires a whole lot of MP and many enemies are immune.

The camp in the center makes for a nice rest stop, but um, that's creepy. I'm not sure I want to talk to you, man.

Nearby we find a pair of Ronso kids, Lian and Ayde.

Apparently Kimahri is troubled. That might be worth looking into.

Over where the monster arena used to be, we get this highly ominous message. Apparently something may be happening here later.

The Cavern of the Stolen Fayth is also closed off. I guess there's not much else that can be done here, so I crossed the bridge to Mt. Gagazet.

Good to see you, big guy. The first thing he does is apologize to Yuna for not being able to find more spheres.

Yuna says it's no worry.

He does mention a place he hasn't checked. The Fayth Scar is where the cluster of fayth that summoned the dream were situated. Now, of course, they're just statues.

He's concerned about sphere hunters there. Rikku thinks it might be Leblanc and her goons.

As the kids mentioned, he's now the Ronso tribe's elder, but he seems unsure of himself as a leader. Yuna reminds him that his decisions are his alone.

Hey, that's convenient.

The Gullwings are a little intimidated by that cliff, but hey, look, there's a goon right there.

They immediately pursue her.

Oooh, a secret hot spring. The goons are slacking off by taking a bath here.

That's mean.

Ormi shows up, and the Gullwings accuse him of being a peeping tom. He's insulted by this, since he has a reputation to keep up.

This time it's a solo fight against him. He's still pretty wimpy, especially without Logos and Leblanc to back him up.

He's outta here.

Unfortunately, all the activity roused the goons, and they go and accuse the Gullwings of being peeping toms. Well.

They go down pretty easily.

One down, two to go.

For the next step, I stopped by Guadosalam to see if I could find any clues as to what the Syndicate was up to. Probably should have done that first.

No entry permitted, obviously.

Aha, here's a lead. There's really only one sandy place in Spira, so it's off to Bikanel Island to check.

Well that's annoying. Good thing we have an airship at least.

There's a big crowd outside the temple. A lot of people are signing up for the digging operation, and many take the time to stare at Yuna. It makes her a little uncomfortable.

This is Gippal, leader of the Machine Faction and another of The Hot Guys. The Machine Faction is an Al Bhed salvage group that uses the term 'machine' to avoid the negative connotations of 'machina'.

Sounds very Leblanc-ish. We'll have to check that out.

Yep, it's them. The Gullwings plan to kill two birds with one stone by both finding the sphere and snatching another uniform.

Oh, now this is something special.

Come on. Didn't I already beat you once today?

He brought Logos with this time, but that won't save him, especially since I've got a new special dressphere to try out.

Now that is some major flower power.

Yuna's moveset is more magic-oriented than Paine's, and the two pistils can provide both damage and support abilities. Ormi and Logos were scattered away like petals in the wind. The Gullwings snagged another uniform too.

Now we can go back to getting permission from Gippal to join the digging crew.

Well, that was fast.

We head back to Bikanel, and the chief there has an assignment ready. Apparently there's been suspicious activity over by the oasis. Could it be the Syndicate again?

This seems to be the same oasis that Tidus woke up at when he arrived in Bikanel.

And the set is complete.

Okay, what is that even supposed to mean? Yes, we're fighting again. No Ormi this time, but that's fine, since Logos is good enough target practice for Rikku's special dressphere.

All systems functional. Prepare to engage.

This mech comes with a number of different weapon systems including lasers, missiles, and good old stompy legs. The left and right arms can fire off support weapons and perform emergency repairs. Once again, Logos was crushed.

With all three uniforms gathered, the raid can begin. Look forward to that next time.

Chapter 2 ended with a distress call from Brother. The Gullwings return to the airship to see what's going on.

Reports are coming in from all over Spira.

Which ones?

Could the other aeons be returning? Should the Gullwings come to the rescue? Yuna isn't sure.

Buddy brings up a good point.

Rikku comes up with an idea. Help eliminate the fiends, and receive gil in return. They'll have to put sphere hunting on hold for now.

We've got three distress calls to respond to: One in Besaid, one in Kilika, and one at the Youth League HQ. Djose Temple is having fiend trouble, but they don't want the Gullwings' help. The Cavern of the Stolen Fayth is also beset with fiends. The temple in the Zanarkand Ruins isn't, since there wasn't a fayth there. Buddy mentions that Nooj and Baralai have gone missing as well.

What's this, though? An opportunity for a new dressphere? That's worth looking into. The temples can wait.

A new game is popping up in Luca, and Rin is holding a tournament.

We need to challenge 3 people to Sphere Break and win.

Sphere Break is a numbers game. The goal is to select coins that add up to a multiple of the number on the center sphere. The four central coins are always the same, while the border coins disappear once used, and increment by one each turn.

The goal is to match each challenger's quota by capturing enough edge coins. You can also pick up bonuses for repeating the same number of coins multiple turns in a row. The turns have a short time limit, so you need to think fast and have good multiplication skills.

I'm pretty good at this, and went 3-0 easily. Now it's on to the finals.

The final opponent is... Shinra? Figures that he'd be pretty good at a math game.

For his match, I have to meet a quota of 50 in 15 turns. That's no easy task.

Dammit. I was close at least.

"...Shinra of the Gullwings!"

Well, I suppose the Gullwings get that dressphere anyway, huh?

Fine then. Be that way. Thankfully we'll get a chance to win it back from him later on.

Let's go do a real mission.

You should probably get your eyes checked.

The Youth League has the gate to Kilika Woods locked down, and aren't accepting any refugees from the temple. That's rude.

The Gullwings ask Dona for some help. She doesn't really want anything to do with the situation, and is fine with it keeping her away from 'that sulky face'.

Yep. He's a member of New Yevon, so he's inside the temple. Dona, as previously shown, is a Youth League member, so the two aren't exactly on speaking terms.

After some persuasion, Dona agrees to help distract the guards.

Here you have to time your dash for the door just right. Wait until it opens, and make sure the guard talking to Dona isn't looking in your direction.

Inside the woods there are more blockades, and there doesn't appear to be a way past them.

Dona mentioned a path above the treetops, though. The Gullwings jump up to a nearby branch and walk over the barriers.

There's chaos at the steps to the temple. The New Yevonites are fleeing as fast as they can, and the torches appear to be burning blue.

There were a few confrontations, but nothing too difficult to handle.

At the temple entrance, the guards confirm that there are fiends coming from inside. The Gullwings get to work.

There's more issues with blue fire, too.

Inside the Cloister of Trials, we find Barthello being menaced by a fiend.

These things appeared inside Sin in X-1. Much like in that game, they always open by casting Haste on themselves, then will throw out more magic to attack with. It's a little rough, but not unbeatable.

Defeating the fiend extinguishes one of the blue fires. Barthello is all right, thankfully. He was still concerned about Dona, and wanted to make sure the fiends wouldn't get to her.

Even if they belong to separate groups, they still try to support each other.

To progress through the temple, we need to kill more fiends to douse the blue flames. In the pit where the big wall of fire was, we find a new dressphere. Hey, looks like we are getting one today. Samurai has the girls doing their best Auron impressions. It comes with high attack power, and can learn Bushido skills to deal further damage.

Outside the chamber, we find the source. It is indeed an aeon.

The Aeon battle music has an air of genuine threat to it, in stark contrast to this game's standard battle music. The Gullwings also don't do any of their cheesy mid-battle quips.

Ifrit can use Meteor Strike to meteor smash your party, and can also cast Firaga on everyone at once. The grid that gave Yuna access to ice magic came in extremely helpful, as he's still weak to ice.

Oh, and we can't forget about this either.

He's pretty frightening, but with some determination the Gullwings can withstand the heat and extinguish his flame.

Another dear friend of Yuna's, lost again? Who can say.

The chamber of the fayth now holds a hole similar to the one seen in the Bevelle underground.

Outside, the torches turn back to normal red flames.

One temple is safe at least.

With the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth situation cleaned up, it's back off to look for more things to do.

That sounds like it's worth a visit.

Seems the show is a flop. That's a shame.

Well, there's always the next one.

Yuna, are you sure you should be asking that?

Paine: "Yuna, run."

She's got the right idea. Let's get out of here.

There's still a distress call from Besaid to answer.

Actually, things seem to be going fine here. As Lulu explains, Wakka and the Youth League have the situation under control, and they're hunting down the last remaining fiends.

Lulu thinks Yuna should help out, and she agrees.

Outside, we find Shinra setting up another commsphere. He explains what they're used for: They can relay video back to the airship.

Seems to be working. Brother is quite pleased to see his crush, who is also his cousin.

Nearby, we find Wakka talking with a Youth League official.

That's a little extreme, don't you think?

They both head inside the temple, and Yuna follows.

"Praying to them never did anyone any good."

He claims to just be concerned about the safety of the village. Yuna heads inside.

This was the simplest Cloister of Trials in X-1, and it's still super easy to navigate. The fiends in here aren't much of an issue either.

There's Wakka. He looks hurt, but he'll be okay.

That's rather questionable, Paine. Wakka and the other Gullwings aren't going to go along with it. Not yet, at least.

Wakka has a better idea. If this is anything like the other temples, there should be an aeon near the chamber.

The Gullwings head down there.

Yep.

The Gullwings warn Wakka to keep his distance as they deal with the threat.

Valefor was the weakest aeon in X-1, and she more or less reprises that role here. Sonic Wings now drains MP rather than dealing damage.

That said, she's not completely harmless.

Compared to the other aeons we've fought, she isn't nearly as tough to deal with.

I beat her before she even had a chance to use Energy Blast.

"I grew up here in Besaid. This is my home. I became a summoner here."

"This is where I first met you."

With the threat taken care of, Yuna and her crew return to the entrance.

Beclem gives them a lecture, reminding Wakka that he's due to be a father soon.

A bit harsh, but he does have a point.

Still, they won't be burning any temples down today.

Mission complete.

Why, indeed. They weren't coming out of the temples, but the chambers of the fayth. Each had a hole where the fayth once was. And there was a similar hole in the room Vegnagun was stored in.

All this is connected, somehow.

Looks like Gippal couldn't handle the issue on his own after all. Brother wants to just leave him to his own fate.

But Yuna isn't backing down.

Danny recommended I go to Bevelle before heading to Djose. Let's check out what's going on over there first.

Wait, Gippal's here? Is that why Djose sent out the distress signal?

The Gullwings follow him into the temple, and find him walking to the chamber of the fayth. What's going on?

He eventually returns to the room Vegnagun was stored in. The Gullwings spy on him from a safe distance.

The other hot guys are here too?

How mysterious.

Baralai explains that Vegnagun has the ability to sense hostile intent.

When Nooj came, it apparently activated on its own and destroyed the wall to escape.

"You probably think that's impossible. You've always been too naive to see. I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"I believed in you once."

That escalated quickly.

Paine? As in, the very same Paine traveling with us?

Pyreflies begin emitting from Nooj's body, and his voice sounds strange, as if two people are talking at once.

"He was too weak to resist me. I don't expect you to present any more of a challenge. Not now."

The pyreflies flow outward from Nooj and into Baralai.

Now he's the one that speaks with two voices.

"Two years ago, it was the same with you, Nooj. Seeking your own death. Now you can have it."

Nooj tells Paine to leave, and a fiend suddenly appears from the wall.

Oh no, it's one of these things. Bad Breath is still a massive pain, but there's the small consolation of it being able to be learned as a Blue Bullet.

Looks like the hot guys ran off while they were fighting.

Paine confirms that she used to be in a squad with them, and that Nooj did end up shooting her in the back. But it seems like she doesn't want to say anything else.

Yuna and Rikku aren't that pleased, but it's not like there's anything they can do.

We also find this sphere. It looks like those four survivors Ormi and Logos talked about on their sphere were the hot guys and Paine. The whole thing raises still more questions.

Yuna is picked up and back on board the Celsius in no time.

Everyone else is relieved to see she's okay.

She takes the time to explain what happened to her, and her meeting with Shuyin and the hot guys. She mentions the name Lenne, and Shinra says something of interest.

So that's who she is? She apparently wore that dress 1000 years ago.

"What Shinra said surprised me, but only a little. So there really was a connection."

Nooj and Gippal seem to have the situation under control, for now.

It's not like the Gullwings can really do anything, anyway.

Before Yuna leaves the bridge, Rikku tries to get some info. Yuna says "Not really, just his face."

A new chapter means the engine room has been restocked with more goodies.

Yuna finds Paine on the deck, and hands the two spheres to her. At first it seems like she doesn't want to talk about it.

But just as Yuna turns to leave, she changes her mind.

"The three of them were candidates for the Crimson Squad. And I was the recorder assigned to their team."

"The best were to be assigned leadership of Crusader chapters across Spira...

The Squad was destroyed before that happened. Most of the candidates died. An accident. The four of us were separated then. Things happened.

I don't get it. I was there. I saw everything. But still, I don't know why it happened that way. Even now.

So I went to look... for some answers."

Yuna: "You became a sphere hunter."

She always did want to fly on this thing anyway.

Rikku pops up to ask what's going on. Paine says she won't tell, and the three of them laugh.

"We used to laugh like this once. The four of us. I've been chasing my past for so long..."

"What about you? Shuyin isn't who you thought, is he?"

This makes Rikku concerned that they'll end up leaving the Gullwings. Both reassure her that that's not happening, yet at least. Rikku and Paine head back inside, leaving Yuna to ponder to herself.

"So many things seem intertwined. But nothing leads to you."

She returns to the bridge as well.

The commsphere network is up and running, and it seems there's trouble afoot. Let's take a look.

Before we do, though, we can also talk to Shinra to view the two spheres given to Paine.

This shows the squad together in Bikanel, fighting some fiends. Things start to look dire, then Nooj just stands in front of one and drops his weapon. Thankfully, they managed to survive.

Paine asks if he's a death seeker, and he confirms it. So why? The only response she gets is "It's my life to throw away."

On the second sphere, we find the squad discussing the then-upcoming Operation Mi'ihen. They wonder if there are truly machina powerful enough to destroy Sin, and what they'll do when the Calm comes.

Baralai: "First he wants to drop dead, and now he's looking for excitement."

The four of them laugh together.

With the commsphere network up and running, we can now check in all across Spira. A few locations don't have spheres installed, since I didn't visit them in chapter 3.

On Besaid we can say hi to Wakka. He tells Yuna that he's got things under control here, but there's trouble across the rest of Spira.

Beclem was apparently recalled to the Youth League HQ.

At Kilika Port, we find the sphere being carried by someone through the town.

She takes it to her home and reveals herself.

The Youth League's having some issues without a leader. They're trying to find a new one, but not having much luck.

She didn't go through with it, because she's too busy looking after herself.

Speaking of, here's the one installed at the Youth League HQ. Yaibal says that he believes Bevelle is planning an attack, and he wants to respond with a preemptive strike.

Yuna has her doubts about this. He ignores her.

Over at Bevelle, it sure doesn't look like they're planning an attack. Maroda is another of Isaaru's brothers, who was once his guardian as a summoner. He's also a Youth League member performing recon. New Yevon must be in quite the mess if they let him walk around the place.

Yuna takes a break to discuss what she saw. Things don't look good.

And there's the Vegnagun threat too. Shuyin's controlling it, and whatever he has planned probably isn't good. Nooj and Gippal are probably trying to destroy it, but...

Yeah, that's an issue.

Nooj asked Yuna to 'take care of things topside'.

But what can she do?

Violence isn't exactly what she had in mind.

Hm.

Hey, that's actually not a bad idea.

They could hold another concert.

And they know just the guy to help with it too.

"I began this journey hoping to find you. But now I know that may never happen. Still, I will keep walking these roads. I have to find where they connect. I have to see for myself."

Let's check out the commspheres again.

Shelinda's interviewing people on the streets of Luca. This woman says "I think it's about time the people in charge stop fooling around and get their acts together."

At Mi'ihen Highroad, Rin is investigating whatever caused the machina to go haywire. Yuna offers to help, and he links her to a network of commspheres set up across the road. I checked all of them, but couldn't find anything of interest.

The one in Djose Temple just gives us this guy, who speaks to us in Al Bhed.

And at the Moonflow, apparently Tobli has disappeared.

The Gullwings will have to check in person. There's no opportunity to stop anywhere else either.

Buddy accidentally dropped them at the road leading to the south bank. He recommends they just walk over there.

Seems we're not the only ones looking for him. These guys appear to be more Al Bhed debt collectors.

There are also some bandits on the road, which are no trouble at all.

Aha, there he is. As soon as they spot him, he runs away.

He's pretty fast too. We have to chase him up and down the road a few times.

Nyoom.

After crashing the sled, he moves to the north bank, and the Gullwings follow.

Well, there's one way to avoid your pursuers.

They eventually meet up with him at the gate to Guadosalam, and tell him about the concert they want to hold. But where should they hold it?

I'm sorry, what? You want to host the biggest crowd in Spira underneath the neverending lightning storm? Okay then.

Tobli's Hypello assistants volunteer to gather people for it.

Above the Calm Lands, the Hypellos leap into action.

Quite literally.

Shinra's working on some tech stuff.

And here we go. Look forward to that next time.

Chapter 5 opens with the Gullwings hanging out on the deck.

The final clash with Vegnagun will be soon, but there are other things to look into before we go. Spira is kind of a mess.

On the bridge, they discuss their plan for action.

In addition to these, there's also the hole in the Bevelle underground, and the one in the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth. All of them should lead to the same place.

Yuna has to decide, again.

However, we're not going for that just yet. There are other things to check out first.

Hoo boy. That's a lot of hotspots. First stop: Besaid. Wakka and Lulu's baby has apparently been born.

Yuna follows him to the temple entrance, where Lulu is waiting.

Aww, cute. Rikku asks if he has a name.

That's a no then.

He's a little apprehensive about the whole thing.

Over on the coast, we find Beclem about to head off. The Youth League has called him back.

The Aurochs throw a blitzball into the air, and it lands at his feet. He doesn't pay it any mind.

On the way back, we meet Wakka again. He was going to say goodbye to Beclem, but he missed his chance.

Rikku gives him some advice that Kimahri told her. Does it mean he has to change his ways?

Not really.

Keepa of the Aurochs is hosting a new minigame here too.

It's a run to the coast, shooting down fiends along the way. If they get too close, they'll attack, and you need to make sure you have enough ammo to bring them down. There are different types of ammo too.

Guess I need a little more practice.

He brings everyone together to introduce the newest village resident.

And everyone reminds him about not having come up with a name.

You already said that. Like literally, that exact line. Maybe his nerves are getting to him.

Things seem to be going well in Besaid, so let's head to Luca.

Blitzball season is here. The Aurochs aren't playing, since they're busy taking care of the new child.

The Gullwings, a blitzball team? Well, Yuna has been working on her diving skills. The first match is against the Guado Glories. I'm kind of surprised they're still around, given their exile from Guadosalam.

The rules are basically the same as X-1. There are now more people per team, and it has a faster pace overall.

It can be pretty confusing, especially with the new overhead view.

This happened a lot.

Yeah, I'm still awful.

Here's what I'm really here for. It's time to rematch Shinra in Sphere Break.

That's a tall order, but I won't back down.

Not again.

Oh, shut up. Thankfully we can retry as many times as we need to. I practiced against some of the other opponents to hone my skills, then tried again.

Eventually, getting a big echo bonus carried me through.

"My goggles fogged up."

Lady Luck is our gambling-themed job, using dice, slots, and card based abilities to perform a bunch of attacks. It's quite powerful, but can backfire if chance isn't on your side.

There's another commotion over at Kilika.

The crowd of people wants to head to the temple to see their families, but the Youth League guard isn't letting them in since he hasn't received orders to. After seeing Yuna, they tell her to order this guy to open the gate, and she does.

Dona watches them go through the Kilika Woods.

At the steps to the temple, they're reunited. The New Yevonites remark on how Yuna's song made them realize how pointless their whole conflict was.

Seems like it.

Dona didn't show up, which leaves Barthello severely disappointed.

But she did send a signal. Barthello leaps right off the staircase at it.

We later find him sitting outside Dona's house, waiting to be forgiven. Well, that's sort of a reunion?

A happy ending? It's hard to say.

The fateful hour has arrived.

We're going in through the hole in Besaid Temple.

Onward!

Uh, what are they even called now?

Good enough.

Last mission? Apparently it will be, for Shinra at least. What's he have planned afterward?

He gets a hug from Yuna too.

"Go, go, go, Gullwings!"

Into the hole we go.

We arrive on the Road to the Farplane. There are many different paths here depending on where you enter from, but all lead to the same place.

Some of the platforms move when you land on them, usually sending you backwards. This area is pretty narrow and has a very high random encounter rate.

This devilish-looking fiend has a special called Thanatos Emblem, which is very pretty.

But also very dangerous. I thought I could learn it for Rikku's Gun Mage, but no such luck.

Ah, yes. We still have some more aeons to deal with.

I came prepared for this one. Yuna still has the grid that absorbs ice damage, Rikku has Fire Breath as a Blue Bullet, and Paine knows Firaga as Black Mage. Shiva is extremely fast and agile, able to hit multiple times in a row and cast Blizzaga on you.

Heavenly Strike now reduces HP and MP by half, and can inflict Stop. That's pretty mean.

And she still has an Overdrive.

Snap.

Not even Yuna's ice absorption ability could weather that storm.

Still, she is defeatable. I kept bringing the heat and she melted.

A save point appears after defeating her, thankfully, else I'd have never finished this.

Yuna: "Not you, too..."

This is the boss fight that makes me want to tear my hair out every time I play it, much like Seymour Flux in X-1. Much like Shiva, the Magus Sisters are extremely fast and each seems to get three actions to your one. Most of their attacks don't do that much damage, but it adds up quickly.

Mindy is easily the greatest threat, as her Passado deals out 15 hits of pain. The damage is a portion of your current HP, so it won't kill, but it whittles your HP down to so little that it makes you easy prey for a follow-up from the other sisters. Sometimes she uses it twice in a row, just for extra agony. While that's going on, Sandy will use standard attacks and Razzias to wear the party down. Cindy mainly takes a support role, using Not-So-Mighty-Guard to grant Protect, Shell, and Regen to her team.

It's a nightmare. Time to break out the special dresspheres.

The high HP of the special dresspheres isn't much insurance, thanks to the way Passado works. And it's not the only trick they have up their sleeves.

Oh hey, remember this move?

Delta Attack reduces all party members' HP to 1, essentially making it a more powerful version of Passado. It's very possible for them to finish the team off before you get a chance to recover, and survival generally depends on their AI doing something stupid. Just about the only mercy of this fight is that once you take out one sister, it gets much easier. They need all three to use Delta Attack, and Sandy falls soon after Mindy. Cindy takes longer to beat, but she can't really do much without her sisters' support.

Full Throttle's Sword Dance came in quite handy, as it could hit all three at once. Even with that, it was a close fight that took many retries.

At the bottom of the path, we find one last aeon. Poor Anima. She really doesn't deserve this after all she's been through.

Pain now causes a host of debilitating status conditions, plus lowers all stats. That's not fun to suffer through.

And of course, we end up being hit by Oblivion as well.

Much like in X-1, this deals 12 hits total. Their individual damage is small, but they add up quick.

Special dresspheres come in handy again here, thanks to their status immunity. It's a long fight, but eventually she can be put to rest.

After defeating Anima, the fayth child appears to apologize for the aeons' behavior.

They were overcome by Shuyin's hatred and misery, and became no better than fiends. Yuna asks what Shuyin is.

The real Shuyin died long ago, and all that's left is his malice.

Yuna: "I'll banish shadow with light."

Paine: "Lenne's feelings."

Yuna: "That's right. Call it... love."

We find Leblanc waiting as we enter the Farplane Abyss.

She found a sphere from Nooj telling her "Don't follow me. Turn back now and wait for my return."

It's rare for her to be following orders, but she was willing to for Noojie-Woojie.

There's one thing to pick up before heading further in. If we go back to the airship and then walk the Road to the Farplane from all five entrances, we're rewarded with something good.

Now this is the kind of firepower we need for the final battle. Black Mage can't learn Flare or Ultima naturally, making this grid one of the only ways to get them. I equipped it to Yuna as soon as I could.

With that settled, it's on to the Heart of the Farplane.

It's kind of an intimidating sight.

To proceed further, we need to solve a musical puzzle. Some panels on the floor will light up and play notes when stepped on.

Then we replicate the sequence on the keyboard to dispel impeding barriers.

Here's something you'd never want to meet in a dark alley. Omega Weapon was an optional superboss in X-1, but has been degraded to a random encounter in X-2.

It even still has the fancy death animation it had as a boss.

Behold, the ultimate power.

Ultima causes a supreme explosion that hits all enemies on the field. It usually deals more damage than that, but this thing happened to have really good defenses. Its 90 MP cost means you can't really use it more than once or twice without some serious MP restoration.

The Azi Dahaka isn't really meant to be fought. You encounter it if you try to cross one of the barriers without playing the song. It has more HP than pretty much anything else in the game, massive attack power, and drains HP when it attacks. Good thing running is still an option.

There's Gippal. He looks to be in rough shape.

Nooj is up ahead.

And Leblanc is right behind us. Yuna tells her to look after Gippal while she waits.

Gippal has another gift for Paine too.

You should. I don't want to have to go all the way back to Shinra to see what's on it. And also, Paine should keep a clear head for the upcoming battle, rather than worry about what's on the sphere.

The Crimson Squad is together on a boat. Paine muses on how she'd like to fly an airship someday. She could be pilot, Baralai would be the navigator, Gippal would join as the engineer, and they say they'll make Nooj captain.

It's the perfect job for him.

They laugh and pose for the camera together.

Yuna: "She's still inside you, sleeping."

There's one last puzzle to conquer before reaching Vegnagun. We need to remember the order of notes shown here, then jump between the floating platforms in the same order. Thankfully there's a drone from which to survey the area.

Once the melody is played, the barrier is down.

It's the point of no return. We head onward from here to the final battle.